State Senate will probe charge of decade-old rape against Sen. Joe Fain

State Sen. Joe Fain (l) has strongly denied the allegation that he raped a woman in Washington, D.C., more than 10 years ago, well before his election to the Legislature. The State Senate will hire an investigator to probe the charge. . less

State Sen. Joe Fain (l) has strongly denied the allegation that he raped a woman in Washington, D.C., more than 10 years ago, well before his election to the Legislature. The State Senate will hire an ... more

Photo: Scott Eklund/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Photo: Scott Eklund/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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State Sen. Joe Fain (l) has strongly denied the allegation that he raped a woman in Washington, D.C., more than 10 years ago, well before his election to the Legislature. The State Senate will hire an investigator to probe the charge. . less

State Sen. Joe Fain (l) has strongly denied the allegation that he raped a woman in Washington, D.C., more than 10 years ago, well before his election to the Legislature. The State Senate will hire an ... more

Photo: Scott Eklund/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

State Senate will probe charge of decade-old rape against Sen. Joe Fain

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An investigator will be hired to examine the charge that State Sen. Joe Fain raped a woman in Washington, D.C., more than a decade ago.

"The Senate has grappled with an appropriate response: The allegation pre-dated Sen. Fain's time in the Legislature and therefore falls outside standard procedures for an allegation of this nature," Nelson and Schoessler said in a statement.

The leaders have gone through the Senate Facilities and Operations Committee to hire the investigator.

The allegation was made by Candace Faber, 35, on the day that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had drunkenly assaulted her years before while a student at Georgetown Prep.

Fain has strongly denied the allegation.

"While this episode has caused incredible stress and pain for my family, I have repeatedly sought a fair and respectful process that would allow me to clear my name and move on," Fain said in a statement Thursday.

Faber, too, spoke of stress, saying: "Throughout this excruciating period, I have been fully open and transparent with my story, responding to all questions from the public, while my rapist has hid behind the word, 'investigation.'"